CrossLife Community Church Statement of Faith
I. The Holy Scriptures
The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were "God breathed", given by full verbal inspiration of God. The Scriptures are self-attesting and authoritative as the Word of God, inerrant and infallible in the original autographs. Therefore, Scripture is our only sufficient rule of faith, practice, and conduct.
II. God
There is only one true, living God who is holy and perfect in His character and attributes and is infinite in His glory. He is the Creator, Preserver, and Ruler of all things. Man, as His highest created being, owes Him the highest love, reverence, and obedience through faith.
III. The Trinity
The Scriptures reveal that the one true God eternally exists in three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Each Person is distinct in personhood, yet share the fullness of the divine nature, essence, and being, enjoying relationship in perfect Triune love and harmony. The doctrine of the Trinity is an essential truth of our faith.
IV. The Sovereignty of God
God from eternity has ordained all things that come to pass, and perpetually upholds, directs, and governs all creation, beings, and events; yet in such a manner as to not in any way be the author or approver of sin nor negate the volition and responsibility of humanity.
V. Election
Election is God's sovereign and eternal choice of particular sinners from among lost humanity unto everlasting life—not based on any foreseen merit or faith in them— but only because of His pure mercy and redeeming love in Christ through whom they are called, justified, and glorified.
VI. The Fall of Man
God originally created man in His own image, and free from sin; but, through the temptation of Satan, Adam transgressed the command of God, and fell from his original holiness and righteousness; because of this all his natural descendants inherit a corrupt nature, are totally depraved and opposed to God and His law. As a result of this inheritance of spiritual corruption, fallen humanity is under the just condemnation of God, and as soon as they are capable of moral action, become actual transgressors against God. Man is incapable of repentance and faith in Christ without God's regenerating work.
Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, born of a virgin, one person with two natures, fully God and fully man, is the divinely appointed mediator between God and man. Having taken upon Himself a human nature in the Incarnation, yet without sin. He perfectly fulfilled the Law and the Prophets, ushered in the New Covenant, died on the cross, rose from the dead, ascended to the Father, and is seated at His right hand where He ever lives to make intercession for His people. He is the only Mediator between God and man, the Prophet, Priest, and King of His Church, and Sovereign of the Universe. All power and authority in heaven and on earth have been given to Him.
VIII. The New Covenant
God has dealt with humanity through biblical covenants in redemptive history. In the fullness of time Christ ushered in the New Covenant. In the New Covenant, God promises that He is our God and we are His people, He has given us a new heart and a new spirit and put His Spirit within us. He has put His Law within us and has written it on our hearts. He has forgiven our iniquity and remembers our sin no more and all of us as His people know Him, from the least to the greatest.
IX. The Gospel
The Gospel is the good news of the life, atoning death on the cross, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the salvation of sinners. This Gospel is the power of God for salvation for all who believe and is the central message of the Church in the Great Commission. God so loved humanity, He gave His only Son so that all believers in Him should not perish but have eternal life. If Christ is not preached as the only way of salvation, the Gospel is not truly being preached, and if His life, death, and resurrection are not the emphasis of the message then Jesus has not been truly preached. At the heart of this saving Gospel is the biblical truth of justification by faith alone in Christ apart from works. The Gospel is good news for lost sinners unto salvation and for believers unto edification, ongoing forgiveness of sin, and perseverance in the faith. Faith alone in the atoning death and literal bodily resurrection of Christ are essential truths of our faith.
X. The Holy Spirit
We believe that God the Holy Spirit brings glory to the Father and the Son. He applies the work of Christ to believers, indwells believers, and distributes spiritual gifts to every believer according to His sovereign will for the purpose of building up the body of Christ. He is the Comforter, the Spirit of Adoption, the Seal of our Salvation, and the Guarantor of our inheritance in Christ.
XI. Regeneration
Regeneration is the granting of a new heart, by the Holy Spirit, who gives life to those who are dead in trespasses and sins, enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the Gospel and the Word of God, and renewing their whole nature, so that they are enabled to love and practice holiness. It is a supernatural work of God's free and sovereign grace alone, so that the ultimate cause of regeneration is God's grace (and is not of the will of the flesh or the will of man). This new birth is solely the work of God; man is totally passive. Regeneration precedes and enables faith and repentance.
XII. Repentance
Repentance is a gift of God's grace, in which the Holy Spirit having regenerated a person brings about acute awareness and conviction to them of the manifold evil of their sin, and enables them to humbly despise their sins with true godly sorrow, and wholeheartedly turn from their sins and endeavor to follow God in loving obedience, seeking to please Him in all things.
XIII. Faith
Saving faith is a gift of God's grace, in which the Holy Spirit, having given one a new heart in regeneration through the instrumentality of the Gospel enables them to wholeheartedly believe on Christ and rest upon His all-sufficient atoning death and resurrection alone for salvation and eternal life. Through faith we are justified and have right standing with God. True faith is accompanied by repentance leading to a life of holiness in sanctification and ultimately results in glorification.
XIV. Justification
Justification is God's gracious full acquittal of sinners from the guilt and penalty of all their sin, who believe in Christ by grace through faith alone, because of the obedience of Christ who satisfied the justice of God by His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead. Our guilt was imputed to Christ and His righteousness was imputed to us when we believed. Justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone is an essential truth of our faith.
XV. Adoption
To those whom God has regenerated, who have been granted faith and repentance, and have been justified, it is also graciously granted to them the right to be sons of God by adoption.
XVI. Sanctification
Those whom God has regenerated, justified, and adopted He also sanctifies by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit through faith and the application of the Word of God. Sanctification begins at conversion and is a progressive growth in holiness and Christlikeness, in obedience to God's commands, in service and good works through the Spirit's enabling for the glory of God and Christ.
XVII. Glorification
Those whom God has predestined, called, and justified, He also glorifies. Glorification is the final work of God upon His people at the resurrection through which He transforms our mortal bodies into eternal immortal spiritual bodies, in which we will live forever. In glorification our salvation is fulfilled and complete.
XVIII. Perseverance and Preservation of the Saints
All those whom God has regenerated, justified by faith and ingrafted into Christ through the Gospel, will never totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but will certainly persevere to the end; and though they may fall into various instances of sin through neglect and temptation, and grieve the Holy Spirit, impair their fellowship with God and their sense of assurance, bring reproach on the church, and temporal correction on themselves, they will be renewed again unto repentance, restored into fellowship with God, and be kept by His preserving power unto salvation.
XIX. The Church
The Lord Jesus Christ is the head of the Church, which is His Body, composed of all His true disciples, and in Him is supremely invested all power and authority for its government. In accordance with God’s will, Christians are to unite themselves into particular local churches; and to each of these local churches He has ordained the appropriate authority for administering worship, teaching, oversight, and discipline. The regular biblical officers of a local church are the Elders (Pastors) and the Deacons.
XX. Baptism
Baptism is a one-time Gospel ordinance of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is commanded of every believer, in which they are immersed in water in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, as a symbol of being united with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection, of washing and remission of sins, and a pledge to God to live and walk in newness of life. It is a prerequisite to church membership and for participation in the Lord’s Supper.
XXI. The Lord's Supper
The Lord's Supper is an on-going Gospel ordinance of the Lord Jesus Christ, administered with the elements of bread and the fruit of the vine, to be observed by His churches until He comes. It is a regular ceremonial proclamation, memorial, and participation in Christ's death. It is an expression of worship and means of edification as believers partake of the bread and the cup as symbols of His body and blood given for our redemption. When we partake of the emblems, rightly discerning the Lord's body and blood, we believe that He is spiritually present with us.
XXII. The Lord's Day
The Lord's Day is a Christian institution of weekly observance on the first day of the week in commemoration of the resurrection of Christ, when God's people are to give themselves to worship and spiritual devotion, both publicly and privately. The public worship service includes the worship of God, through singing, prayer, giving, the proclamation of the Gospel, and the exposition of God's Word. God's people should also give themselves to private and family spiritual devotion.
XXIII. Liberty of Conscience and the Civil Authority
God alone is Lord of the conscience; and He has granted freedom of conscience from the mere doctrines and commandments of men, which are in any way contrary to or not contained in His Word. Civil authorities are ordained by God to preserve civil order and keep the peace, and God's people are to be subject to them in all lawful things. Local churches should seek to impact society at large and civil authorities as examples of salt and light through the proclamation of the pure Gospel, the preaching of the full counsel of the Word of God, and as examples of righteousness through good works and acts of mercy in the community for the glory of God.
XXIV. Marriage
Marriage is a creation ordinance in which one man and one woman are united in covenant commitment for their lifetime. Marriage is God's only biblical framework for intimate companionship between a man and a woman, for sexual relations and as a means for procreation for the human race. In marriage, husbands are to lovingly lead their wives while wives are to respectfully follow their husbands in submission. It is God's unique gift which reveals and signifies the union between Christ and His Church.
XXV. Last Things
At death, human bodies return to dust but the spirits of the righteous in Christ go immediately to the Lord to rest in His presence until the resurrection, and the spirits of the unrighteous are reserved under darkness until the judgement. When Christ returns, all the dead, both the righteous and the unrighteous will be raised, as God has appointed a day, in which He will judge the world by Jesus Christ, when everyone will receive according to his deeds; the wicked will go into everlasting conscious punishment in hell; the righteous will go into everlasting life with Christ. The literal physical Second Coming of Christ, the physical resurrection of the righteous unto eternal life, and of the unrighteous unto eternal punishment in hell are essential truths of our faith. In the fullness of time, all things in heaven and on earth will be united in Christ. Then comes the end, when Christ will deliver the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.